Reconfiguration begins at East London health centre

Published: 14-Mar-2022

£814,000 facelift will bring services together under one roof

Work is beginning on a £814,000 improvement project at The Child and Family Health Centre in Barking, East London.

Having reached financial close earlier this year, the project will see the revamp of the facility, which first opened in 2009.

The building provides a range of community health services across three storeys, accommodating 3,288s qm of space.

But, over the last two years, the requirement to reorganise the local estate and create greater efficiencies in service delivery has been highlighted.

Working together with North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) and Barking and Dagenham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the variation at the Axe Street site will seek to build upon the work that has already been achieved to date and co-locate complementary services that are currently being delivered in poorly-maintained and inadequate facilities close by.

The teams are working with Barking Dagenham Havering Community Ventures (LIFTco) and GB Partnerships (MSP) on this major variation project.

It will also look to move all children’s services delivered by the trust to the site, which will centralise all children’s services in the locality.

The project will reconfigure a number of areas within the building including space on the first and second floors to:

  • Create appropriate space for service delivery, such as recognising the requirement for privacy and quiet space, and identifying services that should not operate side by side for safeguarding reasons
  • Create greater efficiencies across the building and utilise existing space to the maximum potential
  • Improve the utilisation and reduce void space in the building by bringing in new services to complement current departments

The variation has been funded jointly by Community Health Partnerships (CHP) and North East London NHS Foundation Trust.

Alison Butcher, programme manager at CHP, said: “This project has been a long time coming and I’m excited that CHP can support our NHS partners to help achieve their aim of improving service delivery across the estate and make the best out of our building at the same time.”

The project forms part of NELFT and the local CCG’s wider Estates Optimisation Programme, which aims to improve primary care delivery across the estate.

The works are scheduled to complete in June.

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